Ah Mian listened to the lesson, her eyes darting around.
After finally finishing get out of class, she cleaned the classroom and rushed to the money shop without stopping.
When Manager Ye of the money shop recognized her, she remembered that she had come to exchange money once before. However, she was very busy and didn't have time to help others take care of children. She slowly and methodically moved the abacus beads, telling A-Mian to watch and learn by herself.
Amian was so busy all day that she didn't have a moment to rest. Her head seemed to be suddenly filled with things, making her want to lie down on the bamboo mat and sleep for three days and three nights!
Meng Jing cooked dinner. Lately... she felt she had grown distant from A Mian.
Ever since A-Mian started working at the shop, Meng Jing felt she rarely saw A-Mian during the day, but in the evenings when A-Mian returned home, the two could still cook together, chatting and laughing. But now that A-Mian went to the academy, she was coming home even later.
Will A-Mian still be my good friend in the future?
Meng Jing moved a small stool to the side and sat down, tilting her head to watch A Mian write large characters by candlelight: "Is the academy fun?"
"It was alright, I got into a fight with them."
"Huh?! How could they be fighting?!" Meng Jing exclaimed, glancing at the person washing pots in the kitchen before quickly lowering her voice: "Does my brother know? Did you win?"
A-Mian wrinkled her nose. The crudely ground ink stick had a foul smell, not a pleasant fragrance. She sighed, "I know, he was called away. But I won."
"Do all the people inside... bully others?"
“The main problem is that they outnumber us.” A-Mian slapped the wooden table: “Here’s a solution! You can practice the Nine Linked Rings at home for a few days without paying tuition, and you can also go to the academy. That way, the two of us will definitely be able to beat them.”
Meng Jing thought the academy was a terrifying place, but she also wanted to stay with A Mian. After a struggle in her mind, she finally gritted her teeth and nodded: "Okay. I will definitely solve the Nine Linked Rings puzzle at home these next few days."
The two of them made this arrangement privately.
“This is the character ‘天’ (tian, meaning sky). Look, that’s the only character we learned today.” A-Mian’s handwriting was crooked on the paper. “I still need to write three more. Can you write one for me?”
Meng Jing also picked up a calligraphy brush and curiously tried to "write" characters, imitating A Mian's way of holding the brush: "But my hand kept shaking, and I felt that my writing was very ugly."
"That's how it always starts..."
"Lu Amian, come inside, I have something to tell you."
Amian's shoulders slumped immediately. Meng Jing looked at her sympathetically and whispered, "Amian, you can't let my third brother control you like that. How can that be? In my family, it was always Mother who controlled Father. Look at Second Sister-in-law's family, all the well-off families in the village are like that. Amian, you have to be strong!"
“I wasn’t completely under his thumb,” A-Mian retorted.
"Lu Amian?" someone inside called out again.
"They're here! They're here!"
Seeing that A-Mian had put down her pen and run into the house with her hands and feet clasped together, Meng Jing shook her head and sighed, mimicking the mannerisms of an adult.
Ah Mian peeked out from the doorway and saw Meng Chijian rummaging through his small basket on the table, his expression unreadable.
"that……"
"Why are you bringing all this to the academy?" Meng Chijian asked first. In his basket, there were not only fire tongs, but also hemp rope, scraps of cloth (?), empty bamboo tubes, and several small stones that had been polished to a smooth, round shape.
“This scrap of cloth is what I want to make into a beanbag, the bamboo tube is a pen holder, I can put my calligraphy brushes in it... The small stones are for playing with when I’m bored, like this.” A-Mian sat at the table and demonstrated. She held a stone in her hand, threw it into the air, and then quickly picked up a stone from the table while her palm flipped rapidly to catch the falling stone.
"They've all been confiscated. You must study hard at the academy and not think about playing."
"Oh." Ah Mian's head was almost touching her chest.
Meng Chijian tapped the table. "What happened today? Tell me everything from beginning to end."
To avoid punishment for fighting, Ah Mian exaggerated everything several times over: "As soon as I stepped into the academy, I felt a chilling wind, as if there were some kind of trap. The entire academy became unusually quiet..."
Meng Chijian listened attentively.
"I was on my way to the school... Suddenly! From the woods—no, from the trees—several scholars jumped down, each wielding a machete! I knew something was wrong, so I turned and ran towards the study, only to fall right into their trap. That... man named Ji something, with a wave of his hand, several of his servants surrounded me, and then unfurled a huge painting in front of me! The painting was full of ghosts and monsters; looking at it for too long seemed to suck your soul in." A-Mian gesticulated wildly, "So I dared not look any longer, and quickly pulled out a pair of fire tongs and smashed the painting to pieces."
"...I see. And then?" Meng Chijian did see a rolled-up scroll in the head monk's hand during the conversation, but it had been crushed by the head monk and he couldn't see what was painted on it.
"That guy, Ji, yelled, 'You stinking sheep, you're going to die! I'll make sure you don't leave this study alive! I'm the young master of the Ji family, dealing with a stinking sheep like you is more than enough for me!'"
"That's why I fought with them. But I defeated more than ten of them by myself, and they all knelt down and cried, 'My lady, spare us! My lady, spare us!'"
Meng Chijian nodded, pondered for a moment, and said, "But according to what you said, why didn't I see their machetes?"
"When they saw people coming, they secretly threw them all aside and hid them."
"Then how come you're not injured?" he asked, somewhat worried. "If a wound gets wet, it can cause a high fever."
When Meng Chijian asked to examine her, A-Mian stammered and said in a moment of panic, "I once heard Doctor Mo say that private parts should not be shown to others! Don't worry about it, I haven't even asked you about it yet."
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